Put potential suicides on a needle?

Suicidal thoughts in patients with depression were eliminated with ketamine
Copper newsA small study by American scientists has shown that the drug for intravenous anesthesia ketamine, which is also a strong dissociative hallucinogen, quickly and effectively eliminates suicidal tendencies in patients with depression, EurekAlert! reports.

In psychiatric practice, there are often situations when a depressed patient is haunted by thoughts of suicide. Since existing antidepressants begin to act only a few weeks after the start of treatment, their use in such situations is ineffective – the patient can commit suicide without waiting for the effect of therapy.

Researchers from Mount Sinai Medical School in New York assigned a small group of patients with depression, prone to suicide, experimental treatment with intravenous injections of ketamine.

It turned out that a single administration of this drug dramatically and significantly suppressed suicidal thoughts in patients for at least a day after injection. This effect was significantly prolonged when repeated doses of ketamine were administered for two weeks.

According to one of the researchers Rebecca Price, if the results of the work are confirmed in larger trials, intravenous administration of ketamine may become the preferred treatment in cases where the expectation of the effect of traditional antidepressants endangers the lives of patients.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.09.2009